People's Painter

There are few jobs that have built in positives AND negatives. There is no wiggle room when it comes to either. No matter how hard you try, you are always balancing in between the two. Cops have it, news anchors, men and women of cloth and political cartoonists.

Boris Yefimov died yesterday at the age of 108. That's right 108! He witnessed the revolution, civil wars, 2 world wars, the end of the Cold War and the new cold war. Eclipsing all others he was easily Russia's best political cartoonist.

Close shaves were common in Soviet Russia. Stability and common sense meant anyone in the public had better trod a careful line. Boris came to fame during the Second World War satirizing Hitler and the Nazis. Stalin loved poking fun, but his shrewd political instincts told him that this was good propaganda read by leaders and rank and file alike.

Vistors to Yefimov's apartment were treated to amazing stories told with and startling accuracy for someone born in 1900. Stalin scared the shit out of him. In 1947 he received a call from him, the "boss". This is one call you don't shout from the shower that you'll call him right back.

Seems Stalin read all the papers and regularly called editors suggesting stories, changes to headlines and the occasional reminder that his staff may stop by and pick up a colleague for a ride around the block. In this instance he was trying to get the focus on an American military buildup in the Arctic.

Yefimov had promised, the day before, a cartoon on the subject and it had not yet shown up. A regular propagandist for Izvestia, Stalin was well aware of the calibre of his cartoons. Anyway, Uncle Joe was on the line and he wanted to know where his cartoon was. In fact he wanted it by the evening edition, barely 2 hours away. Yefimov said he was convinced he was dead. So much to do in such short time. He DID finish it but was surprised to find out that Stalin had re-wrote the cartoon's caption, using red crayon to scrawl over his original words before submitting for publication.

Born Boris Fridland in Kiev of Jewish parents he didn't really get off to a good start with art classes, but doggedly kept drawing and copying his favourite cartoons. Encouraged by his brother Mikhail, (who became a journalist) he entered art school. But civil war broke out and he and his brother thought it prudent to adopt less Jewish sounding names. He chose Yefimov, and Mikhail a Kolstov.

Boris followed him to Moscow and got his first political cartoon published in Pravda in 1922. The rest is history, a lot of it.

For today, I'll sign off and go see what fodder exists for modern cartoonists. I suspect there is plenty of it.